Pavel Ivanovich Pestel

Pavel Ivanovich Pestel

Pavel Pestel ( Russian Павел Иванович Пестель ., Scientific transliteration Pavel Ivanovich Pestel ' ; * June 24 ^jul. / 5. July  1793 ^greg. In Moscow , † 13 ^jul. / 25. July  1826 ^greg. In Saint Petersburg ) was one of the leading Decembrists .

Life

Pawel Ivanovich Pestel was the eldest son of Ivan and Elisaveta Pestel. He was followed by two brothers and a sister. He had a close emotional bond with both his mother and father and enjoyed material security even in his childhood. Like his siblings, Pawel Pestel was tutored by his mother in the first few years, but then continued his schooling in Dresden from 1805 to 1809 , where he received a solid high school education. Back in Petersburg he attended the military academy , the page corps . There he owed it in particular to his teacher German that he got to know the works of important economists and administrators: Montesquieu , John Locke , Jean-Jacques Rousseau , Adam Smith , Antoine Louis Claude Destutt de Tracy and others. The latter influenced him significantly in the development of his own state ideas and the planning of a Russian republic. Pestel left the page corps with the highest distinction. In one of the testimonies, however, Pestel's assessment can also be found: “He was observed more than once how he behaved very atypically for a student in the page corps; He also protested against the punishment of a classmate by teachers of the corps. He likes to influence his classmates… ”. So even in his youth Pestel had a keen sense of justice and rebellious thoughts.

From 1811 onwards he worked in the army in various branches. Count Wittgenstein said of him "He is useful for everything: whether you give him command of an army or make him any minister, he will be in his place everywhere." He received a number of awards in the campaign ( Battle of Borodino , Greek uprising in Bessarabia and others). He then assumed a high position in the headquarters of the Second Army . In 1820 he was given the task of commanding the Vyatka regiment , which was known as one of the worst in Russia. He mastered this task with flying colors and to the complete satisfaction of the Tsar. From 1817 until his death, he devoted all of his time and energy to work in the secret societies, developing his constitution and his military duties as a commander. His private life during this time consisted almost exclusively of contact with his parents and his sister.

The above quotation comes from a letter from Pawel Pestel to his parents in May 1826. The letter was an attempt on his part to describe the events in Russia around December 14, 1825, the Decembrist movement and his own involvement in it. Pestel wrote this letter from the Peter and Paul Fortress in Saint Petersburg, where, after his arrest in Tultschin on December 13, 1825, he stayed until his execution on July 13, 1826.

He was arrested and hanged for his activities for the Russian secret societies and their anti-government reform efforts . As one of the most important leaders in the Decembrist movement, he had planned a large part of the overthrow of the government and wrote a provisional constitution , the so-called Russkaya Pravda , for the post-revolutionary period .

As early as 1816 Pestel was in contact with Sergei Ivanovich Muravyov-Apostol , Sergei Trubetzkoi , Fyodor Glinka and Mikhail Novikov , learned of the existence of a political secret society in Russia , worked in this association and in 1817 wrote the statute of the so-called rescue union. After the resulting welfare association moved to Petersburg in 1819, Pestel's department in southern Russia was more or less isolated. Two subgroups had developed: the Northern and the Southern League. The ideas of these groups differed significantly not only in their views about the future form of government of Russia. The leader of the Northern League, Sergei Ivanovich Muravyov-Apostol , preferred a constitutional monarchy to the republic planned by the Southern League . Over time, more and more differences developed between the two societies. The Southern Society, under Pavel Pestel's leadership, became the more radical of the two. For a long time Pestel stubbornly tried everything to get his ideas through. His commitment resulted in one of the most important documents of the Decembrist movement, the "Russkaya Pravda or State Document of the Great Russian People, suitable as an instruction for perfecting the state order of Russia and containing reliable instructions for the people as well as for the transitional government". However, it was never used because the Decembrists' attempt at overthrowing on December 14, 1825 failed.

121 members of the movement were arrested, interrogated and eventually sentenced. With the other leading Decembrists Ryleev , Kachowski , Muravjow-Apostol and Bestuschew-Ryumin , Pestel was sentenced to death because he “passionately loved his country and fervently wished his luck”.

Character and personality traits

Pestel was proven to be a very bossy type of person. For him, his opinion came first, of the generality of which he was apparently always convinced and of which he often knew how to convince everyone else. This was largely due to his eloquence, his rhetorical skills were very strong and usually didn't leave much room for contradiction and discussion.

In addition, Pestel was considered highly intelligent, was particularly well versed in politics and history, but was also well versed in various other areas and could contribute views to many discussions. Of this u. a. a euphoric entry in Pushkin's diary of April 9, 1821: “I spent the morning with Pestel, a clever person in the broadest sense of the word. We talked to each other about metaphysics, politics, ethics, etc. He is one of the most original people I know! ”The Decembrist Sergei Volkonsky expressed himself just as euphorically . He said that Pestel was “a man of excellent intelligence and education, with high fiery emotions nestling in his heart. From the beginning of our acquaintance, I was able to correctly assess Pestel's great talent, the fiery feeling of having to be active, and the strength of character. ”However, Pestel was also a person who doubted everything and everyone, reluctant and difficult to trust people wanted to. His lack of sensitivity also contributed to the fact that his reputation among the members of the secret society was not the best. During his interrogation , Bestushev-Ryumin recorded the following: “Pestel was respected in society for his unusual qualities, but his lack of sensitivity was the reason that people did not love him. His excessive distrust repelled everyone ... Everything put him in doubt. ... he knew little about people. ... "His mind was even referred to by some as" German mind (based on his German ancestors): firm, exact and mathematical ". He was also said to be “a theoretical mind with a will that depresses. It is better not to refer to it as the soul, but as the brain of union. He strived for a precisely planned goal, had concrete ideas and therefore also demanded power and subordination. "

These properties are characteristic of leaders themselves, but, as in the case of the conflict between the Southern and Northern Confederations, prevented constructive cooperation and the pursuit of a common goal, because unanimous agreements were always more apparent than real, as they were largely made by the Reached Pestel's powers of persuasion and intimidating idiom.

Ivan Dmitrievich Jakuschkin remembered above all that Pestel “worked harder than any of us for the secret society. No sooner had he convinced himself that the secret society offered the best opportunity to achieve the desired goal than he decided to devote his entire existence to it. "

This combination of intelligence and perfectionist ambition, which is quite common, would not have presented itself as a problem in most cases if Pestel's opinions and reform ideas had not been too radical for many of the members. As soon as radicalism is directed not only against “the enemy”, but also members in “one's own ranks” feel attacked, it has a more destructive, than driving, or rousing effect. Many then accused him of “ Bonapartism ” and insinuated that he wanted to seize all power after the overthrow.

The Orthodox priest Father Myslowskij, who looked after the Decembrists in the Peter and Paul Fortress , said of Pestel: “Fast, resolute, eloquent, a talented mathematician, an excellent military tactician; his cunning, his posture and stature and even his face resembled Napoleon ... He dreamed of making himself in Russia what Napoleon was in France ”. Most of the Decembrists, however, were hostile to the rule of a Russian Napoleon. Pestel was aware of these fears of his colleagues and possibly that was reason enough for him to trust very few people around him.

All of his character traits result in the image of a visionary young man who strived for the modernization and humanization of his country, was recognized by many as progressive and extraordinarily committed and thus had to assert himself as a lone fighter in the midst of many doubters. This meant that he had to acquire a lot of assertiveness and resilience, which in turn may have led to a loss of a certain degree of willingness to compromise.

Ideals

When asked why Pestel acted as he did, he replied to the examining magistrates: “... Every age is marked by special events. The present one is characterized by revolutionary ideas. From one end of Europe to the other, the same thing can be seen everywhere, from Portugal to Russia, no state excepted, even England and Turkey, these two opposing states. The whole of America is the same. This spirit of transformation creates intellectual turmoil everywhere. "

This statement shows what justification and inspiration for Pestel when creating his ideal ideas for Russia. In contrast to the Russian sole rule of the Tsar, there were already democratic structures in these other countries, which Pestel took as a model for his provisional constitution. He further explains: “My thoughts and interests were directed towards the position of the people. The situation of the peasants, which was largely shaped by slavery , had a strong impact on me. Furthermore, I saw the great privileges of the aristocracy as a barrier between monarch and people… ”.

The problem of serfdom and aristocracy privileges were, in Pestel's view, the main problems that caused the injustice and lack of freedom in the Russian people and the abolition of which therefore became Pestel's main concern in the fight against the outdated tsarist system of rule. In doing so, he was largely guided by the democratic structures of North America. In order to establish an equally liberal constitution, he first saw the logical necessity of a complete abolition of all outdated existing structures, which had to be followed by a provisional new order, which he conceived with his "Russkaya Pravda".

Although Pestel was driven by the strong desire to realize his ideal ideas of a Russian republic, he had seen various discouraging meetings and conversations over the years, which testified to the turmoil of society and made him doubt the feasibility of his plan. The conflicts both within the Southern League and between the Southern and Northern Associations were no less; for many members Pestel's ideas were too radical. All of this seemed to tire him and slow him down. According to Davydov, pessimism grew in Pestel in 1825 , indicating the gradual change in leadership from Pestel to the more energetic Muravyov apostol : “The chief chairman was always against all proposals to take action. Even the last time I saw Pestel (in December) he was more convinced than usual of the impossibility of realizing the revolution. He repeated what he had often said to me: that such a possibility would never exist and that it would be better to dissolve society. Only one chairman was active - Muravyov-Apostol had suggested several times to take action, but he did not meet with any approval. " These lines show Pestel in a completely unaccustomed state of severe depression. At this point Pestel was probably already aware that the tsar knew about the existence of the anti-government conspiratorial group. In fact, Alexander I had known more about the group of conspirators since July 1825, but it was not until November 1825 that the actual betrayal by Majboroda took place. During the interrogation, Pestel stated that “… this way of thinking weakened in me in the course of 1825 and I began to see the facts somewhat differently; but by then it was already too late to retreat unharmed. The writing of the 'Russian Truth' was no longer so easy for me ... for a whole year I didn't write anything and only revised what was already there. A strong fear of civil wars and internal turmoil let my willingness to work for our goal cool. " At the time of the failed coup attempt, Pestel had apparently already given up the plan to implement his ideal of a more humane Russian society with the help of the secret society, and in this he was no exception.

His statements to the investigative commission can be read in the two books:

• Gerhard Dudek: The Decembrists - seals and documents
• Vincey: The Brothers of Christ in Russia .

Pestel was a Freemason .

Honors

The Soviet Union later named at least two ships after him:

• the passenger ship Pestel (ex Welikij Knyaz Aleksej , ex Alexej ), which was sunk by the German submarine U 20 in 1944,
• the former German passenger ship Berlin , which was delivered as spoils of war in 1946.

literature

• Natan Edelmann: Conspiracy against the Tsar. Portraits of the Decembrists . Progress Publishing House, Moscow 1984, ISBN 3-7609-0860-8 .
• G. Favstov (editor): Vosstanie Dekabristov. Documentary Tom VII . Gosudarstvennoe izdatel'stvo politiceskoj literatury, Moskva 1958.
• Olga Forsch: 1825 - novel of a conspiracy . Trans. V. Rainer Rosenberg. Verlag der Nation, Berlin 1966.
• Norbert Henke: Constitution (Basic Law) of the Union of the Socialist Soviet Republic of October 7, 1977. An introductory, explanatory and comparative study . Verlag Peter D. Lang GmbH, Frankfurt am Main 1981, ISBN 3-8204-6745-9 .
• Ludwig Kulczycki: History of the Russian Revolution. Volume I . Translated by Anna Schapire-Neurath . Friedrich Andreas Perthes AG, Gotha 1910.
• I. Pavel Pestel ': Russkaya Pravda . In: Gerhard Dudek (ed.): The Decembrists. Seals and documents . Insel-Verlag, Leipzig 1975.
• F. Rehak (transl.): The great Soviet encyclopedia. History and Philosophy Series, Volume 28. The Decembrists . Rütten & Loening, Berlin 1954.
• Patrick O'Meara: The Decembrist Pavel Pestel. Russia's First Republican . Palgrave Macmillan, New York 2003.
• Michael Volkonsky: The Decembrists . Translated by Waldemar Jollos. In: W. Jollos (Ed.): Russian series I. Spiritual history . Third volume. Artemis Verlag, Zurich 1946.
• NM Lebedev: Pestel - Ideolog i rukowoditjel dekabristow . “Mysl” publishing house, Moscow 1972.
• OI Kijanskaja: Pavel 'Pestel': Oficer, razvedchik, sagovorshchik . Paralleli, Moskva 2002.
• Joachim Winsmann: The brothers of Christ in Russia . Norderstedt 2004, ISBN 3-8334-1061-2 .

Web links

Commons : Pawel Pestel  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

1. ↑ ISBN 3-8334-1061-2
2. ↑ muellerscience.com